Are Widows on Our Radar?

Add service to the mix. Because faith without works is, well, dead. Where do widows fit in that mix?

Who’s visiting the widows? Are we?

Week 1:

Service – loving our neighbors like ourselves, taking good and using it to overcome evil – that’s what we’ve scribbled on October’s agenda. We’re focusing on love and service as a celebration. We’re combating evil – like Vegas and more. Find out more about our celebrationhere at week 1.

Bonus:

This is week 3, a week centered upon widows.

After Dad died, Mom suddenly found herself a widow. And I found myself heading back home, 800+ miles from Mom, questions in tow.

Who would be there to eat lunch with her?

Who would help with email questions?

How about simple company and conversations?

The whole scenario caused me to widen my view, look beyond the spanse of my own little world. Several other widows, many a part of life from my wee years, came into view. And I realized I was a piece in the puzzle of looking after those widows.

How?

Through phone calls and letters.

Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. James 1:27 WEB

How are you and I loving those fatherless and widows in their affliction? Are we visiting them? Talking Jesus? Praying alongside? Taking food or spending time simply talking? Maybe it’s a coloring book or word search. Perhaps it’s a simple letter or phone call.

That’s a question answered between each of us and our Father. But Scripture paints a picture of keeping widows on our radar.

How about heaping love on widows?

Here’s a free printable to help.

Call it love letter writing equipment for pouring love the neighborly way. Although small here, it’ll fill up a piece of paper nicely, offering stationery for that widow in mind. (Download by clicking on the graphic below.)

A few years back, a joke danced around our house, “I’ve got island fever. I gotta get out of here.”

With that, we’d hop in the van, and head up and over the concrete bridge, traveling straight toward Aloha Stadium. The large brown structure, a multi-purpose facility used for a long list of activities including a flea market, the NFL Pro Bowl, and various football games, became our stately welcome to Honolulu and the island of O`ahu.

O`ahu – an island – became our island fever escape from Ford Island.

Sounds odd, doesn’t it?

We left tiny Ford Island, a small blob of land protruding from the middle of Pearl Harbor, due to a get-away itch. Locals call it Island Fever. I’ve determined it’s real. But leaving one island for another isn’t much of a solution.

We laughed anyway. And enjoyed every drop O`ahu offered.

But life runs differently on an island.

Call it a slower pace, one with less structure and certainly less infrastructure. A person simply can’t hop in their car and drive over to the next big city. They can’t order furniture and find it on their doorstep later that day or the next. Items arrive by air or boat. If the “thing” isn’t native, prepare for a lesson in patience and waiting as it hops a semi somewhere in the US then lands on a plane or ship. Seven days seems a breeze, fast even. Two to three weeks remains typical, sometimes even four or more.

So when Puerto Rico was hit by a recent hurricane, I cringed. If Puerto Rico is anything like Hawai`i, it’ll likely take time and then some to recover.

They’re an island – standing tall in a sea of water all by themselves. And at the same time, distance makes no difference.

The people of Puerto Rico – they are our neighbors.

I don’t know much about Puerto Rico. I’ve never been there. But one of its own, a young FFA (Future Farmers of America) man digging hard to garner his degree and continue the family farm, has befriended my own American childhood friend and her family – also farmers and FFAers. They’ve met, interacted, and known each other for a handful of years now.

The young man relayed a rather desolate scene. I can only imagine.

My husband, kids and I rode through a hurricane in Virginia Beach and lived on an island. Both tossed normalcy out the window. But I’ve never experienced the two together. I can’t imagine, Puerto Rico, life for you, even several weeks post-hurricane.

Here’s our opportunity, friends. It’s a chance to reach out to an individual family that will, in turn, share with neighbors.

Neighboring with Puerto Rico just got real. Here’s an opportunity to be a “Good Samaritan.”

Amid the mess, something good came.

Kids laughed, ran, and played. Parents communicated, shared, helped, talked, and neighbored with each other like no other time I’d seen. Perhaps before the days of air conditioning and the vast offering of electronic entertainment this was the norm. But in our time and age, it proved the exception to the rule.

But the minute the electricity flickered on – and I mean “the minute” because I recall it well, people hustled inside, holed up once again amid their four walls. Neighboring, as Isabel allowed us to know it, came to an end.

Electric crackles in the parts of the world from which you’re reading this. Mine too. But neighboring doesn’t have to cease.

Here are 15 ideas to implement as we overcome evil with good, loving our neighbors well.

1. Say Hello

Sounds simple, but an intentional “hello” to neighbors or even strangers often goes a long way and sometimes even opens ministry doors.

2. Open a Door

I love it when our boys open doors. The array of responses they receive is wide, but rest assured they’re always coated with thankfulness.

3. Send a Card or Write a Letter

Who doesn’t appreciate a little love in the mailbox? Or, try a free e-card as well. Take those extra 5 or 10 minutes to reach out.

4. Take those Flowers – Visit

Pretend the a/c sits off. Hustle on out there and sit with a friend – whether young, old, widowed, or unable to get out. Take some flowers, music, or food. Most appreciate the effort.

5. Pray – Right Then and There

It’s easy to say, “I’ll pray for you,” then forget. I’ve done it myself more times than I’d like to admit. One thing resolves the problem: praying right then and there. If it’s a response on Facebook, pray before responding. If it’s a need that arises during a phone or in-person conversation, offer to pray right then. Maybe it’s a subject or situation that causes the nose to crinkle. Uncrinkle and pray. Do something about it – take to God Almighty. 😉

6. Volunteer

Opportunities overflow. Our busy family schedule found 1 Sunday/month a good fit. We journeyed down to the Salvation Army and served a solid Sunday breakfast. Serving food isn’t the only option. Pregnancy crisis center opportunities exist, so do local food pantries, individual church outreaches, reading to kids, or offering time at an assisted living facility.

7. Retrieve the Trash Can

Something as simple as bringing the trash can up the house can slather love on a neighbor, not to mention it affords kids an opportunity to help.

8. Reach Out to New Neighbors

Our toughest move was to a civilian community after my husband retired from the military. Folks simply didn’t swing by to shake a hand or offer a hello. And for me, working from home, it became lonely. Why not bake a plate of cookies or gather some fruit and swing by to welcome that new neighbor? Throw a summer cookout or front yard potluck. It might open unexpected doors in a good and God way.

9. Print and Hand Out Cards

I gathered the idea from a fellow military family, and loved it so much, that I mimicked their idea. Print business cards with family member names and contact information. When new neighbors move in or you encounter someone new at church or in the community, you’ll have instant contact information to hand them. It makes staying in contact easy.

10. Deliver or Create Your Own Food Bank

Friend, Tammy, and her family have helped create and stock these little neighborhood food pantries – similar to mini-neighborhood libraries. How cool are they?!

11. Pay It Forward

Ever been the recepient of a “pay it forward?” Sweet! Try it at drive-thrus, toll booths, ticket stands and more.

12. Pick Up the Phone

Text is easy. Try a real phone conversation, too. Many folks love to hear from others. Why not give the opporutnity to enjoy a phone-filled conversation?

13. Extend the Invitation

It’s easy to live in our own, little world, isn’t it? I’m there far too often, all by my lonely little self. But where’s the love? Intentional outreaches, extending an invite to dinner, a party, a hike, or sports game, or something similar might just what the love doctor ordered to combat lonliness or misunderstanding.

14. Be Intentional with Words

15. Find the Good

Critical or blaming thoughts run to the scene easily, don’t they? Why not toss the blame and bury the criticalness, finding the good in situations instead? Express those to others, offer them to God. Then see what happens.